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Annelids

The annelids (also called “ringed worms”), formally called Annelida (from Latin anellus”little ring”[2]), are a large phylum of segmented worms, with over 22,000 modern species including ragworms, earthworms and leeches. They are found in marine environments fromtidal zones to hydrothermal vents, in freshwater, and in moist terrestrial environments.They are bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, coelomate organisms.They have parapodia for locomotion. Although most textbooks still use the traditional division into polychaetes(almost all marine), oligochaetes (which include earthworms) and leech-like species, research since 1997 has radically changed this scheme, viewing leeches as a sub-group of oligochaetes and oligochaetes as a sub-group of polychaetes. In addition, the Pogonophora,Echiura and Sipuncula, previously regarded as separate phyla, are now regarded as sub-groups of polychaetes. Annelids are considered members of the Lophotrochozoa, a “super-phylum” of protostomes that also includes molluscs, brachiopods, flatworms andnemerteans.T